Four Seasons lands on a better expense experience
A memorable stay at a hotel is a bit like watching a great play. Guests and audiences alike want – and deserve – a great experience, without worrying about the hard work that's happening behind-the-scenes.
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts takes that philosophy to heart, including how its Toronto-based corporate finance team now approaches expenses. The company was looking to make its process smoother, so leadership could spend less time concerned with this part of doing business and more on the future – its guests, and how to ensure its guest experience continues to stand out.
"Innovation and continuous improvement has always been very important for us, so we're always looking to do anything we can to make day-to-day processes better, so we can focus on the future," says David Caffo, VP of Corporate Finance.
Before migrating to Concur Expense, Four Seasons Toronto-based corporate team used a proprietary software developed by its internal IT team. While that was a step above its previous spreadsheet-heavy, manual reporting, it was still cumbersome. "It didn't allow our staff to capture expenses on mobile, which has been one of the standout features of Concur," he says.
Four Seasons currently operates 111 luxury hotels, resorts, and residences around the world, which can make expense management tricky at times. Concur Expense's ability to configure to specific needs set it apart from other solutions, Caffo says. In Four Seasons case, it implemented drop down menus to help employees categorize their expenses more accurately. As a result, the finance team can count on having accurate information at their fingertips.
In fact, the finance team, including accounts payable, now spend far less time and money on expense management.
Processing monthly expense reports now takes a third of the time it did before Concur Expense, and the finance department is using 70 per cent less labour on processing expenses.
Above all, Caffo and his team can avoid bringing expense-related issues to executive leadership, so they can concentrate on what they care about most: their guests.